Yes, Lua is very much a niche. I tried applying at Cloudflare because they use the Lua module for nginx - that is definitely in my field as I use them both already. I'm haven't heard back but they've had that position (Lua Engineer) posted for months now. I think my resume might be sitting in a stack.
I had hoped my community college AS in Computer Science would account for something, but when you compare it to those who went to uni I'm sure it's greatly devalued. I like to learn on my own as needed, but I can't show that on paper (can I?). I do feel that I know algorithms fairly well - I spent last week learning the Paxos algorithm so I could apply it to database (mirroring?). I have fun doing things like that, it's just not something I can say I'm accredited for by a university.
I hadn't been getting interviews for a few months but I managed to get 4 all last week (when it rains, it hails?). I was nervous for the first interview but because it was for a friends' company I think I still gave a good impression with him vetting me. I had an easier time admitting my limited frontend experience in the subsequent interviews with other companies. I actually think the way I said this made me appear stronger, like I expected to have no trouble picking it up quickly.
Anyway, I've been trying to decide if I should throw myself into a project to show my ability through Github. I'm torn thinking I should be devoting all my time to the job hunt, but many of my friends have done this to get noticed..
I appreciate your feedback, thank you sir <3